they said that, you know, the unit's probably haunted. never can tell. there was no explanation for it. no earthquake. the inmates weren't complaining in the unit about the ground moving. there were no wild animals in there. i didn't bump it, he didn't bump it. no telling. >> there's been a history of other strange phenomena here as well. >> this is the san quentin dental clinic. back in approximately 1984 there was an inmate murdered here in this corner. late at night, our officers working in here have heard the same thing i've heard, footsteps walking in the floors above me right here. and i keep telling them that the guy that was killed here, the inmate, that's him still walking in this building. >> how do people react? how did you react when you first heard it? did you go up and look? >> absolutely. i thought somebody was in the building. so whether or not i didn't know

whether or not it was an inmate or another officer. when i walked upstairs, everything was locked up, i no longer heard the footsteps. came back down, continued my work. got quiet again. heard the footsteps once again. and everybody in this unit has heard them late at night. >> with so many inmates bent on destructive behavior, it's no wonder that some would, if they could, carry on, even after death. because in prison, danger never dies  eye  let's play hardball.

good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this strange business on the right. one thing you could say in the old days about the country's right of central politics is they were tightly organized. the center right from the hard right. well, tonight as we end this week the kasim is deep, darm, and alarming. look at karl rove. look at newt gingrich blasting away at rover. consider the mayhem now afoot. the center right wants to bring did palestinian to father. they're tired of losing elections they thought they were going to win. they want to run for any office they want. now you've got the gop bigshots running the little people around. it's quite a show, and that's

why we're starting tonight. joy reid is manager of the green alley and michael jones. let's take a look at this. we'll see what's wrong as the gop continues. former gop speech writer michael gershwin wrote, the republican nominee, mitt romney, lost by 5 million votes to a beatable incumbent presiding over an anemic economy. the explanation is not purely technical or personali personality-oriented. it at the national level, republicans have a winning mention for a nation that no longer exists. they didn't know a new election existed. sometime around 9:00 at night when we saw virginia looking close, whoa, what's going on, it looks like a new country's

voting here. they're still playing to the'd country. >> yeah, absolutely. it's like they didn't get the message in 2008. what they missed -- >> didn't you worry that it was in. >> actually, no. i thought birmingham was going to read. if you look at the trajectory, it's been growing for two years. and they've always used the far right to do it. they get them all excited over cultural issues. >> it used to be it was a fair game. >> there's not enough of them. >> for every african -- or latino vote you were going to lose a more conservative vote from the southwest. that hasn't been happening. the white has been up a bit and

the african votes zoomed. >> part of the problem is, number one, they lost the cities. including the urban city that. i're losing urban white voters and they're losing young voters and part of the problem is them. the messaging they use to gin up their base turns off obviously younger people, turns off women, turns off minorities. this time they really got minorities excited about voting. there was already loyalty among americans for barack obama. but when you did that that made that vote solidified determined to come out as if it was 2008. >> this is the problem they have. the leadership, the michael gur sins of the world, god bless them, as joe biden would say, are alienated from those who vote for the people. >> the angry guy out in arizona. >> the town hall meetings. i mean there's a reason why a lot of more centrists are less yahoo republicans did not run for president last time. there was all the crazies and

mitt romney, and if you saw the people turning out as we keep playing those clips from the republican debates, the audience was one that they don't care what michael gursin says. they don't care. a lot of this for them is cultural. they want to go back to whatever the good old days were. >> you give advice to a guy like john mccain. yeah, you have to be a little more popular with your state. he's aware of it. here he was. this is what happens when the republican party follows the advice of the thoughtful people like michael gersin. he's a former maverick taking on the current maverick. let's watch. >> why didn't the army go down there and stop them? because the only thing that stops them, i'm afraid to say and it's too damn bad is a gun.

that's all that will stop them. >> i remember when you were in bed with kennedy. >> in bed with kennedy? thank you. >> most of the people that come across the board are illiterate, they don't speak english and they're a large class. we have a large group of people that you want to make citizens that are going to be on medicare, they're going to be on welfare, they're going to be on food stamps. you know it. >> again -- >> what's going to happen is -- >> again, sir, you're not telling these people the truth. >> you said build the dang fence. where's the dang fence? >> in case you missed it, i -- >> that's not a fence. >> that's not a fence? we've put up a banana with $6 million worth of appropriations we have. sir, you're entitled to your opinion. you're not entitled to your facts. >> i think it's a middle of the road decision. you can't come in the country

without permission. that's the way countries are. it's the world we live in. they don't seem to want to approach it that way. >> i love the clip that you played, chris. first of all, if you listen to that crowd in the audience, that's savage nation, limbaugh, beck. this is 30 years of these guys being entertained by the complex on the right. >> do you think they're educated to those opinions? >> i think it plays into already a feeling of victimhood that the country is being stolen out from under them. >> that's rush. >> that's been stoked by rush and guys on talk radio saying these people are taking your country, whether it's black people, brown people. >> let me ask you. when you're driving around and you're listening to rush and you hear him talk about femmenazis and stopping on the white man's grave, what do you think? do you think they're crazy, manipulate errs? what do you think?

>> i think they use these people because that's how they make money. they were way out in the hinn ter lands listening to. this they've got somebody to blame. then you've got rush and beck and savage, they're taking over your schools. i get eames saying all you people, all you people are on welfare. then you play this piece of it, chris rile quick, where a guy threw back in john mccain's face, build the dang fence. he did it too. now it's coming back to bite him. >> you're a sweetheart, but why do you read thiess e-mails? >> i can't resist. >> you're such a nice people and you think you owe these people who attack you racially? >> no, i don't respond to them. but sometimes you've got to know what they're thinking. they authentically think they're making an argument to me by saying all minorities are on welfare, they've been fed this for 30 years. >> it goes back to nixon's

southern strategy that our friend pat buchanan tried to put in place. you know for eight years, 12 years now, these are karl rove's people. >> let me defend pat. he's not here. the difference between pat and limbaugh, he's not selling it. he believes everything he says, whether you like it or not. >> i don't care whether glenn beck or rush limbaugh bheesh what they say or not. >> i do. >> it's an interesting academic discussion. the outcome is the same. and you get these people riled up and now karl rove wants to try to put this angry genie back into the bottle and you say no. >> you don't focus on the integrity? i know you do. newt gingrich went after the art

tex i am uopposed to boston. of bill yars financing a boss to pick candidates in 50 states. and grassroots small town conservatism. no one person it. he's a walking etch a sketch. >> it's absolutely absurd. but without irony, he changes position on this stuff. that's why he's newt gingrich. >> well congratulations on the hubris monday night. coming up, look who's becoming the face for administration. joe biden. it's almost that funny. it's serious business to fight guns. guns -- for gun safety, you have

to be for guns. he's laying the groundwork for 2016. he's the regular guy with a shotgun. also the triumph of obama care. they're quietly buying into the obama care plan to increase medicaid coverage. many have opposed the plan in the past, especially florida's rick scott. he's on board tonight and tonight the man who replaced rick scott and who might replace him, charlie scott is coming on "hardball." what are you doing sunday night? the oscars. who better to tee up? james lipton. he's coming here. finally it's a right-winger i'm team. commerce louie go mer right here in the old u.s. of a. this guy's got it all figured. a unitary figure for all problems. and this is "hardball," the place for politics.

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if you want fro text yourself, get a double-barreled shotgun, have the shells of a 12-gauge shotgun and i promise you, as i told my wife. we live in an area that weeoode around somewhat secluded. i said, jill, if there's ever a problem, walk out on the deck, put your shells in your gun and fire two shotgun blasts. you don't need to aim. it's harder too use. you don't need 30 rounds to protect yourself. buy a shotgun, buy a shotgun.

>> welcome back to "hardball." buy a shotgun. buy a shotgun. that was joe biden in a town hall meeting. that came after a question asking if an assault weapons ban would prevent people from defending themselves. >> if the shooter in tucson had a ten-round magazine instead of a 30-round magazine, little granddaughter of a friend of mine from wilmington, delaware, who used to manage the philadelphia phillies, she would be alive today because when he was changing his magazine, a woman leaned over in the crowd and knocked his arm and that's how they subdued him. that makes a difference. it wouldn't have saved everybody. it wouldn't have saved everybody, but the last two people shot would be alive. >> let's try to disentangle the

strange role he's playing. he's talking about get yourself a shotgun. he said it twice. i'm going to teach my wife to use it. get out on our balcony in our leafy neighborhood. let off a couple of shots. this is what he's saying. let it off around the guy who's getting in your house. this is pretty weird. this isn't liberal talk. this isn't a big city "we're against guns" talk at all. >> no, it's not. >> what is it? >> it's regular joe talking to joe six-pack about commonsense gun control laws and he's doing it because it's the middle, if you will. the people who could go either wi on this who respect the first amendment -- or second amendment who are hunters and may own guns themselves. it's the obama administration and joe biden saying we get the importance of second amendment, we understand the value of owning a gun, we understand what it can do for people who want to

protect their families. but there are limits to what you need to protect your family, and a shotgun is enough. i think this notion that, you know, if you fire two shots at somebody coming at you with a shotgun and you hit him in the chest, they're not going to come at you anymore. you don't need an assault weapon to hit him or protect your family or to hunt. >> doesn't that sound odd? if you look at the democratic platform, it's all about gun safety and gun control and he's saying go buy a gun. don't give me the political correct answer here, which you're giving me. what are they up to? is this to move beyond the suburbs to make sure the democrats have somebody to talk to the raw guy -- rural guy? >> i think it's that. i think it's moving beyond the cities and the suburbs and into more rural america. but that's where the votes are to make the difference on something like a magazine clip

limit because everybody in the big cities already supports whatever gun control democrats bring forward, and it's in rural america and in the suburbs where they resisted. so joe biden's out there basically saying buy a gun, own a gun, protect your family, respect the second amendment. but you don't need a clip or an assault weapon. and so it's a small play. >> okay. let's be totally political about this. suppose we don't get gun control. where does that leave biden, the president. say this year's going to be a good year to get it. if we don't get that this year because it doesn't clear the senate and therefore it doesn't have to come up in the house, it doesn't happen. politically where does that leave the president and secondly where does that leash the vice president going toward 2016? >> i think the president is in a good position because he tried and i think the vice president is in a good position because he's out there making the case. and you have to wonder as you look at 2016 and what the field

looks like. let's assume for a second that hillary doesn't run. you have two governors running. andrew cuomo and martin o'malley, both very aggressive. i think biden is trying to check them on gun control but demonstrate to democratic primary votes for 2016. and we know he's going to run because he's wanted to run. he's somebody who can go into pennsylvania, ohio, some ochl these communities, go where some of these democrats, they have a tough time winning the election. he can speak to people, get their trust and democrats can win in 2016. >> by the way, awhere are you a? you don't have to answer -- >> it's warm. >> it looks like it. we've heard a lot of crazy things over the year from texmen

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back to "hardball." now the side show. earlier this week we found out why some republicans thought chuck hagel had ties to a secret group called secret hamas. it turned into a serious feature on a right wing website and then caught on from there. here's steve colbert. >> friends of hamas is even worse than it sound us because this organization is so sinister that it doesn't even exist. the fact that these organizations don't exist only makes it more suspicious that chuck hagel has been tied to them. what else is he hiding that hasn't happened? is he a member of the al qaeda kids club? what about the muslim

brotherhood or the muslim sisterhood of the traveling pans or ties to the dead poets society. whienld are they dead? do they know the too much about benghazi? president obama, you must withdrawal hagel's nomination or you'll lose the supplyiorlyin sy moderate republican, another group that doesn't exist. >> after that brouhaha, it looks like hagel has enough votes to get confirmed next week. next we welcome republican louie gohmert. he's sounding the conspiracy alarm bell. take a guess. is it about the government coming to take your guns away oar another warning that shari'a law is taking over? >> it's for our protection and the founders' quotes make that very, very clear and including against a government that would

run amok, you know. we've got some people that think shari'a law ought to be the law of the land, forget the constitution. but the guns are there. >> let's parse that. who have you ever heard of on any medium or any person think's shari'a law ought to be the law of the land? who's he talking about? nobody. secondly, is it true that the the second amendment, the right to bare arms, insures our religion? i don't think so. i think it's the people. a montana gun law is proposing a new sheriffs first bill which would allow county sheriffs to pick and choose which federal laws they want to enforce in their state. as garry more bit told "mother

jones" might say that we have probable cause to say we have this person in our county who's making firearms without a license and the sheriff might say, well, gosh, under the montana fiearms freedom act, he might say you don't have permission for this bust. it was cleared by a vote by the state's republican-led house judiciary committee just this week. people, who do you think really has got the short end of the stick when it comes to the looming spending cuts that are said to hit on march 1st? well, consider the guy who's korz nating 800,000 defense department layoffs that will happen as a result. that would be pentagon comptroller robert heale taking it in stride. he said when i walk down the hall, they still wave, but with fewer fingers. that's it for "hardball." coming up next, "your business

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